Who Is Jay Leno's Wife? All About Mavis Leno

Jay Leno and Mavis Leno’s love story began in a comedy club.

Former Tonight’s show The presenter met his wife after performing at the iconic Comedy Store in the 70s. Jay admittedly “wasn’t very good at going out,” and Mavis didn’t think she’d ever walk down the aisle. However, everything changed when the couple met.

“I always had this idea that I’d never get married,” Mavis told PEOPLE in 1987. “But with Jay, I began to realize that this was the first time I’d ever been with someone for whom I had a perfect, calm feeling that I had reached my destination. .”

The couple married in 1980. Discussing the secret to their long-lasting marriage, Jay joked on PeopleTV, “Not screwing around is a big key. You can do a lot. You can leave your underwear on the doorknob for the rest of your life if you don’t screw around.”

All joking aside, Jay shared, “I always tell guys when they meet a woman, ‘Marry your conscience. Marry someone who is the person you want to be and everything will be fine.’ ”

In April 2024, Jay was granted custody of Mavis after she was diagnosed with dementia earlier that year. As conservator, he plans to set up a trust for Mavis to provide for her future care in the event of his death.

Here’s what you need to know about Jay Leno’s wife, Mavis Leno.

She met Jay at a comedy club

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Mavis met her future husband at the Comedy Store, a famous comedy club in LA

“It was in January – I don’t remember the day. But then I thought, ‘Holy shit! That comedian is gorgeous!’ “ she recalled in an interview for Los Angeles Times. “I went to the Comedy Store with my girlfriend because I was writing a comedy with some partners. My friends kept saying, ‘You have to hang out at the Comedy Store and the Improv. You’ll meet people who can get you work.’ When I first went, they sat us in the front row in the middle — that means you this far from the comics. And there was Jay.”

The couple’s cute encounter happened after Jay’s act. “I had to go to the ladies room. What I didn’t know was at the Comedy Store back then, that area was the only place for comedians to hang out,” she recalled. “So when I came out of the bathroom, he said, ‘Are you that girl out front?’ And I said, ‘Yes, that was me.’ ”

Jay once bought her a blouse instead of a drink

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Since Jay doesn’t drink, he once decided to give Mavis drink money to go shopping instead.

“I wasn’t very good at going out,” he told PEOPLE. “I don’t drink. I never have. I remember one time Mavis wanted a drink and I said, ‘Look, let me give you money and you can buy a blouse or something. I don’t want to buy you a drink.’ So I gave her $35 and she bought the blouse.”

Mavis admitted that she thought it was “absolutely extraordinary”.

She didn’t think she would get married

Joseph Del Valle/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

Before she met Jay, Mavis didn’t believe she would one day walk down the aisle. “I always had this idea that I’d never get married,” she told PEOPLE in 1987. “That was a big thing for me, part of my fierce feminism. But with Jay, I started to realize that this was the first time he’d ever been with someone who I had a perfect, peaceful feeling that I had arrived at my destination.”

When asked why she changed her mind, Mavis said: “It was just that I was 34 at the time we were together … I got over it, even though it was an important gesture for me – that I could live without being married. ”

Jay proposed without an engagement ring

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No ring was included when it was Jay Leno’s Garagestar asked the question. “I think I said, ‘Honey, I have this insurance plan,’” Jay told PEOPLE.

He explained later LA Times that he wants Mavis to be covered by his insurance in case something happens to him.

“I had this insurance policy and I thought if something happened to me, my girlfriend wouldn’t be covered, but if we’re married, we’re covered, so… we might as well get married. It’s not the most romantic. Mavis didn’t even get engaged ring until—” he said before Mavis interjected.

“He was going to buy me one, but we just bought a house, so why would I?” she said. – I’m not that kind of person. Although Jay did not buy an engagement ring, he later bought a diamond ring for Mavis.

She was born on September 5

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Mavis has the same birthday as some ex-husbands. Speaking with LA TimesJay said he’s “probably lived with five women” and they were all born on the same day.

“I can look at a woman and go, September 5th. I don’t know why that is. I’m not looking for a woman born on September 5th, I’m just drawn to it,” he said.

Mavis remembered that the TV star had accidentally asked when her birthday was. “I said September 5. He started laughing so clearly I remember saying, ‘What?’ And he said: ‘Oh, nothing,'” she recalled.

She married Jay on a special date

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The couple tied the knot in a “very small wedding” held at a friend’s house on the same day as Jay’s parents’ wedding anniversary.

“I thought my mom would like it – November 3, 1980,” Jay said LA Times. Mavis noted that she is “crazy” for the comedian’s parents.

She didn’t want to have children

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Mavis said The Washington Post in 2014 that she “takes full credit” for her and Jay’s decision not to have children. Watching Honey moon as the girl affected her. “I would see a young woman who was very attractive and a thousand times smarter, and she was living in this little cabin with her husband, Ralph, and then this Ed Norton, who had an even hotter wife,” she said. “Those men spend all their time talking about what a hassle women are and wondering how they can get away from them. It’s perfectly obvious that it’s the women who are trapped.”

She continued: “I remember telling my mother when I was 7 or 8 that I was never going to get married or have kids. To me, this is how women get caught.”

She is a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation

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Mavis joined the board of directors of the Feminist Majority Foundation in 1997 and is the chair of their campaign to end gender apartheid in Afghanistan.

According to the foundation’s website, she is “a leader in efforts to make the restoration of women’s rights a non-negotiable element in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and has been at the forefront of ensuring that the plight of Afghan women is included in global coverage of the war in Afghanistan and that women and girls in Afghanistan are not forgotten.”

In 2009, she explained LA Times why she decided to be an advocate for Afghan women. “The Taliban were so outrageous and so extreme that if women who were free to speak didn’t speak, we could say to the whole world, ‘No matter what you do to women, no one cares, just go ahead,'” she said. “I promised the Afghan women that I’m not one of those Americans who doesn’t have enough attention, and as long as this situation lasts, I’m going to be there. Persistence is not only the most important thing, it’s the only thing.”

Mavis and Jay presented the inaugural Mavis Leno Award for Global Women’s Rights in May 2024 at the Feminist Majority Foundation’s 16th Annual Gala. During their joint speech, the former talk show host gushed about his wife and said marrying her was “the smartest thing I ever did.”

The first year of Tonight’s show they were difficult for her

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She discovered for LA Times in 2009 that she and Jay had “difficult” periods in their relationship.

“When Jay got Tonight’s show, the first years were difficult for me. All of a sudden, Jay had this day job and every person on the planet was asking him for something,” she recalled.

Mavis decided that she would be the one not to ask for anything. “It gave him the relief of being home, but it can also feel like a distance,” she reflected. “I don’t know if he was aware of it because he was so overwhelmed with work – the time itself demands only pressure.”

It took Mavis a while to adjust to Jay’s busyness, but eventually their relationship grew stronger. “No matter how steadfast your feelings are for each other, your life circumstances will go all over the place,” she said. “We’ve lived through the death of my parents and his parents and the loss of Jay’s brother. We started with a little money and now we have a lot. But we’ve stayed the same. The great thing about Jay is that whatever he says, that’s it.

She was by Jay’s side after his accident in 2022

In November 2022, Jay suffered severe burns to his face, chest and hands in a gasoline fire that started while he was working on a car in his garage. The TV presenter was rushed to the hospital, and Mavis, according to his doctor, was “by his side” the whole time.

“[She is] obviously very worried,” Dr. Peter Grossman said during a news conference after the accident. “They have a very close relationship, and she’s doing as well as you can expect from a wife who’s worried about her husband.”

A month later, during a guest appearance at Today show, Leno said he was also worried about his wife during the ordeal. While the late-night veteran was urged by doctors to go straight to the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, he decided to go home first.

“My wife doesn’t drive anymore and I didn’t want her to be stuck and not know what’s going on,” Leno explained. “It just seemed like the right thing to do and I think it was.”

Host Hoda Kotb asked, “So you loved your wife more than you cared for yourself?” He replied, “Yes, that’s it!”

She was diagnosed with dementia

Mavis was diagnosed with advanced dementia in early 2024. Jay has since been granted custody of his wife.

According to Mavis’ attorney, she has agreed to custody and is “getting excellent care with her husband.”

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Source: HIS Education